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Kathy’s Montana Adventure, Day 5ish

Well, it has been a bit crazy. After Gardiner we were told we wouldn’t have cell service for two days. We had an off day yesterday to Yellowstone on school buses. I took the five hour tour. We went to the geysers at Norris and then to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It was very smoky there and so I didn’t take many photos. We did see bison along the road and had fun on the way to Pilot Creek. Pilot Creek is 10 miles from anywhere. It is in the middle of the Shoshone Forest. We were told to conserve on water as they had to bring in everything for us since there in no electricity or water anywhere near. It was actually nice but we are in big time bear country so no hiking or biking in groups of four. Rained for two hours and got pretty cold so it wasn’t fun packing this morning with everything wet.

Travel plans have changed for the week as there is a fire at Beartooth Pass (our last day) and the have closed the road. So today we did 67 miles to Cody as planned. We had several smaller four mile climbs but then a 2,000 foot gain over eight miles over Chief Joseph or Dead Indian pass. I cranked for an hour and a half and took some great photos of our switchbacks. I was so glad to see the top and lunch. Then I did a coast down the mountain on the backside where I did not touch my pedals for more than a half mile for 10 miles. It was awesome. I definitely broke a few speed laws as we topped out at over 40 mph at some points. Then it got hot as I pedaled the next seven miles to the water stop. The last 11 into Cody were mostly down hill with a bit of a cross headwind. But we are here and were told last night that we would be doing an out and back alternate ride Friday and staying in Cody two nights. We will ride to Red Lodge on Saturday instead of tomorrow and have to miss the 34 mile climb up Beartooth Pass. Sounds like the fire crew has taken over our area in Red Lodge so it may be interesting to see how we get our cars on Saturday.

Well I am off to dinner. Today was fun, amazing view, but hard on my old body. Might try to hit the laundry mat later to get all that clean for a change.

This is one of the fires burning north of us. We road through smoke from it today and were within miles of the base command.